Skip to main content

Investments and Trade-offs in the Economics of Information Security

  • Conference paper
Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 5628))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

We develop and simulate a dynamic model of investment in information security. The model is based on the recognition that both IT managers and users appreciate the trade-off between two of the fundamental characteristics of information security, namely confidentiality and availability. The model’s parameters can be clustered in a manner that allows us to categorize and compare the responses to shocks of various types of organizations. We derive the system’s stability conditions and find that they admit a wide choice of parameters. We examine the system’s responses to the same shock in confidentiality under different parameter constellations that correspond to various types of organizations. Our analysis illustrates that the response to investments in information security will be uniform in neither size nor time evolution.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Anderson, R., Böhme, R., Clayton, R., Moore, T.: Security economics and the internal market. Report to the European Network and Information Security Agency, ENISA (2007), http://www.enisa.europa.eu/doc/pdf/report_sec_econ_&_int_mark_20080131.pdf

  2. Beautement, A., Coles, R., Griffin, J., Ioannidis, C., Monahan, B., Pym, D., Sasse, A., Wonham, M.: Modelling the Human and Technological Costs and Benefits of USB Memory Stick Security. In: Eric Johnson, M. (ed.) Managing Information Risk and the Economics of Security, Proc. WEIS 2008. Springer, Heidelberg (2008) (preliminary version), http://weis2008.econinfosec.org/papers/Pym.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  3. Giannoni, M.P., Woodford, M.: Optimal Interest-Rate Rules I: General Theory. Working Paper Series 9419, National Bureau of Economic Research, ISSU 9419, ISSN 0898-2937 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gordon, L.A., Loeb, M.P.: The Economics of Information Security Investment. ACM Transactions on Information and Systems Security 5(4), 438–457 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hamilton, J.D.: Time Series Analysis. Princeton University Press, New Jersey (1994)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Hausken, K.: Returns to information security investment: The effect of alternative information security breach functions on optimal investment and sensitivity to vulnerability. Information Systems Frontiers 8(5), 338–349 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Loistl, O.: The Erroneous Approximation of Expected Utility by Means of Taylor’s Series Expansion: Analytic and Computational Results. American Economic Review 66(5), 904–910 (1976)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Nobay, R.A., Peel, D.A.: Optimal Discretionary Monetary Policy in a Model of Asymmetric Bank Preferences. Economic Journal 113(489), 657–665 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Willemson, J.: On the Gordon & Loeb Model for Information Security Investment. In: Proc. WEIS (2006), http://weis2006.econinfosec.org/docs/12.pdf

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Ioannidis, C., Pym, D., Williams, J. (2009). Investments and Trade-offs in the Economics of Information Security. In: Dingledine, R., Golle, P. (eds) Financial Cryptography and Data Security. FC 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5628. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03549-4_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03549-4_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-03548-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-03549-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics